April 2009 Meeting &

Plant of the Month Competition

What Ho! - Watmough's Mesemb

We welcomed John Watmough (who was doing a Zone tour) to our meeting

He gave us a talk on the "Other" Mesembryanthemums excluding Lithops and Conophytums. John said that there were other speakers much more knowledgable on Lithops and Conophytums so he was excluding them from his talk

In the first half of his talk he spoke about the plants from a collection of them which he had brought with him. He grouped the plants under similar growth habits talking about each one in turn and their cultivation requirements as he proceded. Some of the plants he found presented cultivational difficulties, especially regarding when and how much to water

After the tea break he showed slides of many of the Mesems in order to show us their flowers and diversity of growth.

This was an enjoyable and interesting talk that was enjoyed by all present